ICAS video: China’s Naval Expansion and Global Security

Public lecture video by Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS). This lecture was held on December 20, 2016. Speaker was James E. Fanell, Government Fellow with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and a Senior Associate at Centre for Russian, Europe Asia Studies.

Event Description

China’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea over the past five years has dramatically altered the geo-military balance of power in the Indo-Asia Pacific region. The creation of the “New Spratly Islands” in the South China Sea, along with its declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea and claim of sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, as well as unprecedented and increasing naval operations into the Western Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and into the Mediterranean Sea are all empirical indicators of China’s future actions on the global stage for the remainder of the first half of the 21st Century. These are contrary to China’s stated goal of its peaceful rise. In response to China’s expansionism, the United States and regional nations have responded responded with heightened military readiness, including building and enhancing existing bilateral military alliances, as well as expanding multilateral military partnerships. How to deal with China will be a major challenge for the incoming US administration as well as for other nations.